Nathaniel- A Child of the Other Place
by NathanielUnderwood
Summary: When sick Nathaniel becomes a Child of the Other Place, he doesn't know that it just might save him later... Or will it? At first, Pre-Ptolemy's Gate, then Post-Ptolemy's Gate. (This is a re posting under a new Username, I was previously BartixNat)
1. Chapter 1

**Nathaniel- A Child of the Other Place**

**Sickness**

**Okay, so... I had this idea and had to get it down on paper. (or... on screen, I guess?) This is that idea. I do not own Bartimaeus. (Clearly) That honor falls to Jonathan Stroud. (Unfortunately for me, luckily for fans everywhere)**

_My Point of __View_

Nathaniel wasn't feeling well. His voice was raspy, his head was spinning, and he was burning up with a fever. However, there was no way he could go to bed, or continue this in the morning. It was so important, so insanely important, that he had to do it... NOW.

Which, in all honesty, might have been a mistake.

But anyway, he had just done a lot of research on a subject that, if he managed to perform correctly, would make him invulnerable. Well, not completely invulnerable, but close. He would be a powerful demon.

And it couldn't wait until he recovered from the sickness. He knew that someone was out to kill him. Someone he knew might be from the government, a jealous underling wanting revenge, or maybe a person left over from the resistance.

Little did he know, it was neither of these things.

It was actually-

Before the narrator (me) could finish her foreshadowing, Nathaniel shuffled to the stairs, yawning and swallowing the vomit that he could feel coming up in his throat. He was really sick. Nat couldn't remember a time that he was this sick before, although he had been. Once.

It was in his past life, before he was a magician. When he was just little Natty, who lived with his sister and parents in a life of being a commoner. Both he and his sister were struck down with a sickness that lasted weeks, getting worse and worse.

Every night, their mother would make them chicken noodle soup, most of which would be thrown up by morning. She also read to them, mostly fairy tales, but sometimes their favorite story, about a boy who went to a magic school, where everything was happy, and nobody was sick, and magicians weren't the evil, demon summoning beings that they knew them to be. It was outlawed, ever since the magician uprising, but even though Nathaniel's parents were scared to death of the magicians, they still had a copy.

Just because of how much they knew that Nathaniel and his sister loved it.

Contrary to popular belief, Nat's parents did not hate him. Actually, they loved him even more than his sister, who was loved a really large amount, too.

But they were struggling, and they knew that if they couldn't get more money than what they were making, their entire family would be out on the streets.

And there were no jobs for them, seeing as they already had one each, and they were... commoners. So they did what they had to do. They knew it was either give one of their children up, or give both of them up to child services. And they hoped that the one they had to give up had a better life with the wealthy magician.

And they didn't give up Nathaniel on purpose. Actually, it was more of an accident. Originally, they were going to give up his sis, though they didn't want to. But they took Nathaniel to see her off, and the magician decided that he wanted a boy more than a girl. So, sobbing on the inside, they gave up Nathaniel, filled out the paperwork, and took the money and left.

Fast. They had to get out of there, before the entire magician community saw them bawling.

That might get them fired, honestly.

So now you see that they portrayal of Natty-boy's parents as heartless demons (which is ironic, considering what he spends so much time summoning) is incorrect.

But whoa, I am getting really off topic. I was talking about how sick Nat was, not his parents, and how they had to give him up at a young age.

Seriously, what is wrong with me?

No, okay, well, so he was really sick. He should have gone to bed, cuddled up under a blanket, and watched soap operas, like a normal person does when they're sick. But no.

He had to go and try to make himself a invulnerable demon.

Great...

So, he walked, very slowly, his bones aching, everything aching, down the stairs, and into his office. He was very happy with his flat. It was large, and he was enjoying the living space. But on that particular day, he was pretty ticked off about how much he had to walk around. He was too weak for that on that particular day.

Which should have been a warning.

He shouldn't have walked into that room.

But he did, anyway. Like I've said a million times, there is something wrong with Nathaniel.

He was glad the pentacles were already drawn, so he didn't have to draw them. He knew that his hand would be too wobbly, and he would mess it up and end up killing himself. Luckily, all he had to do was light incense and candles.

When he was done with that task (which was far too hard for him, in his current state) Nathaniel stood in the pentacle and summoned his least favorite demon, Bartimaeus.

He only summoned that one because, well, in all honesty, he trusted that one the most. There was a million reasons that he shouldn't trust the demon, but there was one reason he did. The form of Ptolemy that he took.

That form made Nathaniel see that there was something different about Bartimaeus. He was a large ham. There was no way that he would take the form of a scrawny Egyptian boy if it weren't beyond important to him.

Clearly, it was.

And he had figured out that it was Ptolemy's form fairly quickly. There were a few masters of Barti from Egyptian times, and all of them were described as either too old or too large to fit the description. Except for Ptolemy.

Something had happened in the demons' past. That something made him take the form of a human. He had cared for the boy.

And maybe, just maybe, he was capable of caring for Nathaniel, too... At least, that was what Nathaniel had been hoping when he summoned the demon.

~-~-~- Wall of Nothingness to indicate Change of Point of View... ~-~-~-

_Bartimaeus' Point of Veiw_

I felt the pull of the summons, and let go of the other place quicker than normal. I don't know why, really, and I certainly don't want to find out, but I found that I looked forwards to seeing someone down there.

But it couldn't be... Nat? Well, who else was I expecting?

But, that was... disgusting. He was a fourteen year old drama queen who was giving me absolutely no peace.

And plus, he was really annoying. (1) But, no matter what the reason, I let go of the hold that I craved, and went into the Earth, in pain, as usual.

Great.

I landed in the pentacle and looked at the boy on the other side. I didn't even bother with an impressing guise, I just reverted to Ptolemy's form. Looking back on it now, this might have been a bad idea. I saw a spark in his (2) eyes, and he later told me about what exactly had happened.

He wouldn't have tried all the nonsense if it weren't for the fact that I came down in Ptolemy's form.

Great. Once more, just freaking great.

So, I stood in the pentacle, and looked at the boy. Seriously, he looked worse than usual. His hair stuck out at odd angles, he was constantly sneezing or coughing, and he looked worse than I had ever seen him.

"Your wish, O sick one?"

I asked. He glared at me. "I wish for you to claim me-" He said some more, but even I, with my amazing skills, could not make it out. He had been rasping really terribly, and then his voice gave out.

But since I am a djinn, I took this to be a full stop, and put on a somewhat creepy face. "Oh? You are finally sick of life on Earth? Ready to die, then, Natty-boy?" I was about ready to jump out of the pentacle and kill him (Well, maybe not. Just maybe...)

"No!" He suddenly got his voice back. I didn't understand how, but it was amusing, so I didn't question it.

"No. I wish for you to claim me as a child of the other place." His voice was rasping even worse than before, but he managed to keep the entire sentence hearable.

I gasped. There was no. Freaking. Way. (3)

(1) Almost as annoying as Faquarl. And that took some effort. Honestly, that boy had issues.

(2) Otherwise lifeless and dull

(3) Seriously, how did the kid even know about that? And why? Why did he want to torture me forever? I didn't know then, and I don't know now. All I know is that it was the beginning of the end when he uttered those words. Seriously. And of course, I had to follow his every command... Ugh.

**Well, that was chapter one. Shorter than I thought it was going to be. But It's a pretty long story planned out, and I want to sort of space it. Yeah... Chapter one and chapter two were going to be the same chapter. But that (obviously) did not happen. So... tell me what you liked! What you didn't like! What ships you want to see! (What I'm saying here is: R&R, people!)**


	2. Chapter 2: A Child

**Nathaniel, A Child of The Other Place**

**Chapter 2: The Child**

** Well, hey, it's ME again! Yeah, I hope that you were waiting with BAITED BREATH for my newest update! (But I know that you weren't.) **

** So, yeah, once again, I do not own Bartimaeus. I own nothing! **

** Yeah, true story. So, warning for this chapter: Fluff!**

** Lots of it!**

** Have fun READING!**

~Y~E~A~H~I~K~N~O~W~T~H~A~T~Y~O~U~L~O~V~E~I~T~Y~A~Y

_My Point of View_

Nathaniel looked at Bartimaeus, and awaited his response. But the demon wasn't talking. No, it was too busy changing itself into various forms, all of them looking slightly like Nathaniel, but either really old, or destroyed horribly.

Nathaniel held his ground, looking at him, glaring, for most of this. That is, until Bartimaeus started flickering through images of Nathaniel being tortured by several entities. That's when he started getting a bit creeped out.

And that was not a good state of mind for an already weak, really pitiful fourteen year old boy.

So, he did what he had to do to stop it. He fired an Inverted Skin at Bartimaeus.

That stopped the demon rather quickly.

In fact, he immediately screamed out 'NATHANIEL", and sent it back at him. He jumped out of the way just in time, and it didn't hit him. But, something (arguably) much, much worse happened. He jumped out of the way, yes…

Right out of the Pentacle.

~Hey~It's~Bartimaeus'~Turn~To~Tell~The~Story~Now!~

_Bartimaeus' Point of View_

My luck was falling into place. The boy might not have turned his own skin inside out (as I would have wished), but he did put himself in danger by jumping out of the Pentacle. And I was prepared to use that.

So I jumped out, and instead of eating him right away (1) I decided to gloat a little first.

"Well, well, look what we have here! The tables have turned, now, haven't they?"

"Please, Bartimaeus, no… I don't want to die like this… You are still under my command!"

"Oh, please! How cheeky can you get!? You ARE under my control. I am going to kill you. And you, you basically let me!"

"No, Bartimaeus… Please, I'm sorry…"

"A bit too late for that, isn't it?"

That was when I decided to kill him. But, as I said in the footnote, I should have just done this at the beginning, because while I talked, he decided that he wanted to fight back.

Even while he was sick.

I should have noticed that his eyes were darting back and forth, should have sensed the silver's aura from the desk.

Well, yeah, but I was a bit caught up in the moment, and can you blame me? I was about to get to go back to my home, the Other Place. And there would be no chance of this annoying boy summoning me back!

Yeah, normally, I would say that you can guess what happened next, but since you idiots reading this are HUMAN, I suppose that I should just tell you, plain and simple.

He reached up, grabbed the silver pendant that he had from someplace (2) and hit me in the head with it, right as I was about to kill him. I mean, come on! Couldn't he let me have ANYTHING? But nooo, he couldn't even let me have that. So, that was how I ended up barely cutting him, and he ended up severely hurting my essence.

That, well, that was when things were about to start happening.

Now, he got me mad.

~Yes, this is a thing.~

_My Point of View _(again)

The silver pendant in question was in fact an ancient artifact, found in a tomb of some sort. It seemed to have once been part of a rather interesting thing, used to protect something or other.

Now it was a crumpled piece of silver that sat on the desk of a fourteen year old boy's desk.

But it was a rather important thing that it did, because without it, Nathaniel would have died that night.

And that, well, that would really suck, because then the story would be ruined, and then I would have nothing to write about!

So, he pressed the metal to Bartimaeus' forehead (he was still in Nathaniel's guise, so if anyone was watching, it would have seemed rather odd to see a boy fighting himself) and watched as it seared his essence. Unfortunately, that victory came at a price.

Bartimaeus swiped out a claw, and cut across his face.

It wasn't deep, but extremely painful, and he cried out in pain, dropped the silver, and fainted.

~Oh, no~ What's going to happen next?~ ~Is Nathaniel going to die?~

_Bartimaeus' Point of View_

That's when I realized it. That I wouldn't kill him. I had the perfect opportunity, of course… He was outside of the Pentacle, he was unconscious, and he had put no protective clauses in place.

But… I couldn't do it.

I looked at the poor sap lying there, with a cut across his face, and blood pouring out, and… I couldn't do it.

Maybe he reminded me too much of Ptolemy. Maybe something else was going on. But no matter what the reason was, I couldn't do it.

I might have had an actual… (and it pained me to even consider this) affection for the boy. We had been through things together, and I wasn't about to kill him.

So, instead, I picked him off of the floor, where he lay, bleeding, and I put him down on the posh couch in the main room of his flat.

And I put my (his? I was still wearing a guise of him for whatever reason) hand on his cut. I waved it, and muttered an incantation.

The cut glowed, and I almost shrieked with pain (3) as my essence was ripped out. In place of the cut, now there was a silvery line that glowed on his face. That was it, I guess. I had started the transformation. (4)

He was going to bother me forever.

And it was my own fault.

As I should have, as it would have saved my existence from being so… threatened, all the time, constantly…

Never asked from where, never really cared enough to…

Almost, of course. I would never do something that *hum* unmanly

His charge, to make him a 'Child of the Other Place' meant that he wanted me to donate some of my (rare and incredibly important) essence to his, which would slowly transform him into a djinn, who I would be stuck with forever. I shouldn't have allowed this. But he looked so pathetic, so sad, that I decided to help the poor sap. Never again.

**Well, that was the second chapter. WAY too short, I know, but, well, what are you going to do? I have a bit of writer's block, and… I don't know… I just wanted to get this down, okay? Anyhow, I have TWO more things to say before I go, and those things are:**

**Thank you, Jigoku Pie, for reviewing! That was really nice! Yeah, I try, with my writing, but I think that that might have been the single most nice and AWESOME review ever posted! So, yeah, read!**

**And thank YOU, masterdisk, for favoriting my story! You will not regret this! (hopefully)**


	3. Chapter 3: Essence

**Nathaniel- A Child of the Other Place**

**Wow, that was a long hiatus! Sorry, everyone, I hope you can forgive me… I know I hate it when people do this to me, so. **

**If you were very interested in my story, I am very sorry for giving you such a long wait. **

**However, I am back now, so yay! Well, I still don't own Bartimaeus yet. Yeah, not that much has changed. Yeah. Okay, so what are you reading here for, still? The real crap is down there. **

~Woo~Hoo~To~The~New~Chapter~

Nathaniel woke with a pounding headache and a really painful and disturbing feeling in his hand. He looked down and almost screamed at the strange, gooey, silver substance that was seeping from his hand.

The memories of the night before swamped his brain, and once again he felt like screaming. But… he wasn't dead.

He was alive, although he shouldn't have been. Bartimaeus let him live. _Bartimaeus let him live. _And also- and this was the weirdest thing to him- he helped him. In the end, Bartimaeus helped him. He gave him some of HIS OWN ESSENCE.

That was actually scary to Nathaniel.

It was scary because he should have died. It was scary because he ended up alive.

And now he was going to have to deal with it.

_Mysterious Assassin time_

The Mysterious assassin was outside his window. She looked in at the sleeping, pompous boy with greasy black hair. She hated him.

But that wasn't why she was here. She was here for one reason and one reason only: she was hired to kill him. And by God, she was going to do her job. That's what she was raised to do, as the most recent and last survivor of the Assassins of the Hill, an old cult that originated all the way back in Egypt. Her grandfather had kept the school running, and his grandfather before him.

Now they were all dead, and it was up to her to do something about to do something about the greasy fourteen year old.

She crept up to his window…

-~~~~!MY POINT OF VIEW I GET TO TALK!~~~_-`-`-`-

Nathaniel woke up with a sharp pain in his arm. He looked down, and saw a large grayish silver area, where his skin used to be. It was spreading fast. Now, this should have elated them. That was a good thing, right? The essence was creeping over him, helping him, healing him…

But no, that was one of the worst things ever to happen to him. And do you know why? Well, it's because the essence was disolving the weak flesh of the boy. It cut through where his arm and chest used to be, and he passed out from the pain. Technically, he died from it. His heart was cut off, and then his brain, and he was nothing. Nothing but a glob of essence on the floor.

The last thing the boy ever did with his own body was scream.

It was probably the most blood curdling sound ever heard.

He didn't even notice the assassin at the window, although her mind would forever be scared by what she had just witnessed.

$$ $$!N Time!

The assassin watched from the window, wondering when the perfect time to make the throw of the dagger would be.

And then the boy she was sent to kill bolted upright. And then something happened that she wished that she had not seen.

He dissolved. He dissolved into a glob of goo onto his carpet. She stood there for a while, and when she couldn't cope with that any longer, she slipped silently into the night, to cut off her own hand for failure of the kill.

She would have to kill herself, but since he ended up dead anyhow, she didn't think that her punishment had to be that harsh.

As long as it never happened again.

That night, the police would find a severed hand, dripping with blood, and a girl without a left hand, holding a knife in her right hand, on a city street. She was rushed to the hospital, and survived, although she left a lot of blood around London.

The strange thing was that no matter what, the girl wouldn't tell anyone her name.

But I know. It was Fire.

_Bartimaeus' Point of View_

I felt the tug of the Earth world and groaned. Was Nathaniel really summoning me? I would have thought that he would be here, in the Other Place by now… I guess my essence took longer to spread than I thought it would.

No! I remembered then, that I had supplied my essence. That meant that I had to dismiss him back to the Other Place.

Ugh.

That meant I actually had to do something that helped Nathaniel. But what choice did I have? If I did it fast, then at least both of us got to go back to the Other Place faster. So I materialized, sat down, and looked at the sorry lump of essence at my feet. Turning into Ptolemy, I kicked it. (1)

It jerked, and I could hear a slight noise in my head(2)

"Ow."

"Natty boy?"

"Yes?"

"You look disgusting. Make a form, I beg of you."

The kid pulled himself into a shape. It could have been a passable piece of modern art, but it was better than conversing with a lump, so I allowed it.

"Come on, I'm dismissing you."

I began the dismissal spell, letting my essence relax just as much as I could allow, and we were ready to go back to the Other Place, back to safety, back to life as it should be.

But no, that would be too easy for Nathaniel. He had to make my life the most miserable thing that had ever happened to me. He had to struggle out of the bond that had formed between our essences. And it hurt. A lot. So much that I was knocked out, and the next day, I didn't remember anything that had happen. And the worst part? Nathaniel's essence had formed into his old self, and he didn't remember anything, either. As far as both he and I were concerned, we were both just normal, he was still a magician and a human, and I had no recollection of helping the sorry git.

He didn't dismiss me for a while after that. In fact, it was about two years until I got out of that servitude...

(1) Hard. He deserved it.

(2) I had a connection with the kid now, as much as it disgusted me.


End file.
